Ladies, like makeup, we accumulate a ton of hair stuff. Blow dryers, curling irons (of different sizes and shapes because there is a difference between a wand and an iron), hair creme, hair mousse, anti-friz, heat protector, hair spray, bobby pins…and more bobby pins. That doesn’t even cover the hair accessories! I used to rock a pixie cut. In order to “dress it up,” I would put flower barrettes or sparkly clips in my hair. It was super adorable, a lot of times they were difficult to find without going into the kids’ section at the store. Kids get to have all the fun, right? Wrong! Why should you let retail dictate what you get to wear? You should be making your own clips. And you should also be making these easy hair accessories for you and your child. They will save you money and you can cater to your taste.

Personally, I’ve always adored cute headbands. I have very thick, wavy hair that gets unruly pretty quick. These headbands are the best in the business because you get to make them yourself! My favorite is the upcycled scarf because I have so many scarves that I would hate to get rid of, but can’t wear anymore. In the list below, there is a mixture of both kid and adult craft tutorials. I encourage you to check out both kinds because you never know when inspiration will strike! You can adapt each to your own style and preference.

Featured Hair Pieces

Okay, so this isn’t quite a hair accessory, it’s a straight up hat, but it is too cute to pass. This Frozen Elsa hat will be a great gift to make for your child who adores the Disney movie. She will love the soft yarn and the long braid that would go perfectly with an Elsa costume. Check out these other Frozen inspired costumes for more cool fun!

I am constantly on the go. That’s why I love this easy braided headband. It pulls back all the fly-away-hairs and it is adjustable as it gets stretched. These are a 10-minute craft, so you can make one of these DIY headbands in every color.

And then there’s some days where you want to put your hair up, but, you know, society dictates you look put-together at work (who makes these rules), and you want to go half-up, half-down. This barrette craft is a great homemade hair accessory for when you are looking for a statement piece without too much effort.

Triangles are showing up just about everywhere so I figured, why not hair accessories too! I created a signature felt triangle headband and I have to share with you how I created it. It’s super easy and takes just a few minutes to make.

Here’s what you need:

Photo of headband and pieces

Felt

Plastic headband

Sewing machine or embroidery thread and needle

Hot glue gun

First, start by hand-cutting your triangle shapes. I didn’t measure or anything. After I got a good triangle that I liked, I use it as my template for the others. You’ll need 6 total.

Next, you want to add a very small amount of hot glue to the center of the triangles and create sandwiches. This just holds it together while you stitch. You can either complete he next step using a machine or use embroidery floss to hand stitch. I love the look of both. Sewing by machine is just faster for me. The embroidery floss gives it a much more handmade feel.

Then, you want to stack your pieces, overlapping them slightly and gluing it together. Let it cool and then attach it to the headband with a small strip of felt.

You know the drill…new year, new chance at organizing your life. It’s time to tie your hair back and get to de-cluttering…and what better way to start the process of organizing than by making some easy homemade headbands to keep the hair out of your face? We’ve done some of the dirty work and compiled a slew of homemade headbands from all over the web to suit all kinds of ages, hair lengths, and styles.

Whether you’re looking for something fancy and flowery, like this beautiful Flowers in Your Hairband, or want something a little more practical and comfortable, like one of these Marbled Silk Hair Bands, we’ve got unique headbands for all! If you need a little extra flair, be sure to check out our other homemade hair accessories for everything from practical use to fabulous hair flair.

Now, let’s get down to business. Here are some awesome headbands for people of all ages and styles. Gather up those flowers, feathers, and fabric squares!

Today’s Meet and Make designer is Kristine Mullen. Kristine is a SAHM of 6 children, a homeschooler, and a crochet blogger. You can see all of her designs on AllFreeCrochet.com and her blog, Ambassador Crochet.

Ready to meet Kristine?

10 Fun Facts About Kristine Mullen

I have 6 children (1 boy & 5 girls), ranging in age from 18 down to 18 months.

I’m a homeschooling mom.

I have 2 children who have albinism (albino), which means they have low vision or are legally blind.

I never liked chocolate until I was pregnant with my first daughter. Now I’m addicted 🙂

I’m usually wide awake around 3am every morning.

I don’t like to shop for clothes.

I have more yarn stash than I can probably use in my lifetime. Shhh…don’t tell hubby! (just kidding – he knows, and he’s fully supportive….most of the time)

Other than crochet, the only other hobby I have is photography.

My dream was always to have one professionally published pattern. In March I was contacted by a yarn company that wanted to purchase one of my patterns! I’m so excited. It should be available some time this fall.

I’m working on starting a crochet ministry that will reach out to moms who have lost children during childbirth or shortly after, and children who are undergoing chemo treatments. More details coming shortly…

With all the housework complete and an afternoon home alone, I decided to hunt for the perfect afternoon crochet project. My two requirements: Quick and easy.

Since making accessories are always a pretty simple project, I searched ALLFREECROCHET.COM for a cute accessory. That’s when I found the perfect design. As I am a huge Anthropology window shopper and gift card hopeful, I knew the Anthropology Knockoff Headband was the project for me.

I already had all the supplies at home, a size “G” hook, worsted weight yarn, a thin headband, a hot glue gun and small beads that look like peals. I decided to use turquoise yarn for spring.

The pattern begins with creating a magic loop. If you are unfamiliar with the magic loop, I highly recommend checking it out and learning this technique for starting projects. It’s tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it you’ll love it!

The magic loop is used to start the flower construction. I chose to put two flowers on my headband, but covering the entire top of the headband would be cute for a young girl.

After crocheting the two flowers and hot gluing on the beads, I was ready to begin wrapping the headband. I used about half an inch of hot glue along the inside of the headband to hold the yarn in place. Keep the wrapping yarn tight and take your time. With a half inch left to wrap, I used the hot glue again to finish.

A small amount of hot glue goes along way. Be careful to not use too much glue while applying the flowers to the headband.

This project was exactly what I was looking for. I spent about twenty minutes making this headband and it was extremely simple. Here’s how mine turned out.

Warm weather means the return of flowers and floral print, and a big holdover trend from last year is oversize hair accessories. What better way to incorporate the two trends than with a DIY hair flower?

The inspiration for this project comes from Anthropologie’s “Extra Zest Clip.” When I saw this in the store, my first thought was “I need to own this!” followed by “Eighteen bucks? No way!” culminating in “Hey that looks kind of like Martha Stewart’s tissue paper pom poms…” And so, the idea for a DIY Anthro clip was born.

Step 1. Using Martha’s tutorial, I first cut out eight squares from some black chiffon I had in my stash (any fabric will do—be creative!). I used 4×4 inch squares, but you can use bigger ones if you’d like a bigger flower. The project only works with squares (not rectangles, parallelograms, trapezoids, etc.), but they don’t have to be perfect squares.

Seriously, they don't.

Step 2. Stack the squares on top of each other and accordion fold all the way down. This is a little trickier with fabric than with tissue paper, but it is feasible. The tutorial says to make ½ inch folds, but that is with a much larger piece of material. I just made my folds as small as I could while still keeping some semblance of uniformity. Just as in Step 1, it doesn’t matter if your folds are very even.

Stacked squares

Accordion fold

Step 3. Wrap a piece of wire around the center of your folded squares and twist to secure.

Squares secured with wire

Step 4. Trim the ends of the accordion folds to make them rounded or pointy, whatever your preference. You may have to go back and trim them more once they are separated, because cutting through that many layers of fabric takes a bit of muscle!

Step 5. Separate the layers from each other and “fluff” appropriately. This step is mostly trial and error. Once you’ve got all the layers separated, just pull and prod at the petals until they look how you want them to look.

Pulling one layer away from the rest

Step 6. To wear your hair flower, either wrap the extra wire from the middle around a headband (this is easily removable too, in case you want to wear it on different headbands) or attach to an alligator clip. If you’d like to use your flower as a brooch, you can alternatively attach a pin to the back.

I made mine into a headband.

And voila! You are now a veritable fashion maven, with your wallet intact.

Red, white, and blue is a great color combination. Unfortunately, like many holiday color schemes, there are only certain days that you’re allowed to wear these colors together. So take advantage of the upcoming 4th of July holiday by allowing yourself to match the flag—just don’t use all of these ideas at once unless you want to be mistaken for Uncle Sam.

One of the easiest DIY projects to make is an embellished headband. There are numerous ways to embellish a headband, from gluing feathers and fabric flowers to adding ribbons and beading. Most embellished headband tutorials can be done with only three materials:

Glue gun

Headband

Whatever you want to embellish with

Try this project idea for a flower and ribbon headband, or this one that uses feathers—you can personalize them in red, white, and blue for 4th of July. The possibilities are endless!

DIY Bib Necklaces
Another subtle way to show your patriotism on the 4th is with a festive, homemade bib necklace. Just as with headbands, bib necklaces are easily customizable for any holiday and can be embellished with just about anything—flowers, ribbons, beads, buttons…I could go on forever! Decorating headbands and bib necklaces in red, white, and blue is a stylish way to incorporate your 4th of July crafts into your wardrobe.

Ruffle Tops
For those who want to wear their patriotism on their sleeve (or any other part of their shirt), why not customize a ruffle shirt project for the 4th of July? Ruffles are also very stylish right now, and they are one of the easiest things to sew. To make a 4th of July ruffled shirt, all you need is a plain T-shirt or tank top and some festive fabric. Any type of fabric will do, as long as it’s red, white, and blue! You can even cut up a second T-shirt to use for fabric.

First cut your fabric into three long strips, about 2.5” wide. Make two of the strips about 18” long and one about 24”. That way you will have one long ruffle that runs down the middle of your shirt, flanked by two shorter ruffles.

Turn your strips into ruffles by sewing a straight line down the middle of each strip using your sewing machine’s largest stitch. Leave a few inches of thread hanging off the ends of your strips. Next, pull one thread and watch your strips bunch up into ruffles.

Once you’ve got all three ruffles done, it’s time to sew them onto your shirt. First sew the longest ruffle down the very middle of the shirt (make sure to take the machine off its largest stitch or else your ruffles won’t be very secure!). Then sew each shorter ruffle down on either side of the middle ruffle, making sure they are still both the same length.

When you make and wear these 4th of July crafts, you’ll be just as vibrant as the fireworks, only much, much trendier.

Just a quick note to let you all know about a new Guest Project at FaveCrafts from Ann of Still Dottie. Ann walks us through various tutorials for creating embellished headbands, clips and brooches, so that you can flaunt the flower and feather trend for a fraction of the price. Check out her fantastic ideas here!

Full Project Tutorials

Today’s project comes from FaveQuilts.com, so whether you love quilting or you’ve always wanted to try it, this is the perfect project to get you working with fabric! The Daisy Star Nine Patch Quilt is a beautiful quilt that’s big enough to cover a twin-size bed. Make it for a guest room or as a […]